


The Principal's Office

by orphan_account



Series: Will and Nico All Grown Up [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Expelling ghosts, Ghosts, Homicide Detective, M/M, Underworld powers, birthright, parenting, principal's office
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 04:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11006307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Nico and Will get called from work to talk to Lee's principal.  Nico helps his son figure out how to see ghosts and still function in first grade.





	The Principal's Office

Nico could sense the spirit hovering nearby before he could see it and he mentally sent out the message to wait. This was the third young woman pulled out of the water since March, and they’d had exactly one lead, wobbly, at best. The investigation was quickly going no where, and the bodies were stacking up. The city wasn’t quite on the verge of panic, but pressure was mounting. Media coverage was sampling alarmist language. Nico and Mike would never get back the 30 minutes they had spent sitting on hard chairs in the chief’s office this morning. There had been mention of a phone call from the mayor and the potential for lost tourist dollars.

Having access to the dead, Nico mused after he managed a legitimate-sounding excuse for heading away from where the body was being photographed and prepped for transport, did not make it as much easier to solve a murder as one would think. The dead didn’t always stick around, or return, and if they happened to, they didn’t always speak. Like this one who crouched between the moorings of the industrial docks against which Nico leaned while nonchalantly lighting a cigarette. The girl was barely a flicker of her past self, and Nico could sense she was barely resisting the pull into the underworld. “If you can speak, tell me quickly. Or, show me what you will,” Nico murmured, blowing out smoke. His voice was quiet and his tone was brusque, but his eyes were kind. Death like this was hard. The wraith was fading but she motioned frantically to the metal mooring. Nico bent and could see the brown smear of dried blood, almost imperceptible against the rusted jagged peeling paint. “The killer’s?” Nico breathed, but the spirit was gone. Still, this was something. Butting out the ruse-smoke, Nico jogged back to the processing crew calling for swabs. “Mike, there’s something over there at the moorings-” His phone was ringing. 

He narrowed his eyes at the call display ‘Chestnut Street Elementary’ before answering.

“di Angelo.”

Nico listened to the voice intently, nodding and looking at his watch. 

“Ok, I’ll be right there.” He hung up and searched his pockets for his keys.

“I gotta go to my kid’s school,” he told his partner.

Mike looked concerned. “Everything ok?”

“They won’t say…. Look, Mike, I have a good feeling about that blood I found. Let me know as soon as the labs come back.”

“Yeah, will do, Nico. You go. I’ll finish up here." Mike had learned to trust Nico's good feelings on things.

As he was parking by the old brick three story building aptly named for the surrounding chestnut trees Nico could see Will getting out of a taxi. 

“They called you too?” he asked when he caught up to him on the sidewalk. Will had obviously come straight from the hospital – in greens, his ID tags hung from his neck and his hip pocket bulged with his colourful cloth OR scrub cap.

“Did they say anything to you?” Will looked equal parts concerned and pissed. 

“Nope. Just that Lee’s okay.” 

They waited side by side to be buzzed through the front door.

In the principal’s office, Lee looked small perched on a chair in front of the desk. His face was pale and pinched, eyes red from crying, though he wasn’t crying now. His arms were crossed tightly. As soon as he saw Nico, he burst into a torrent of Italian out of which Will only caught “Papa, I’m not lying!” and something about everyone being stupid and blind. 

“Basta, piccolo,” Nico put an end to the tirade. Lee shut his mouth. Will placed a comforting hand on his son’s head seeing two fat tears trickle down. 

The principal, a no-nonsense looking woman with wiry gray curls, to her credit, didn’t seem flustered by the outburst, and introduced herself to the tall, handsome fathers of Lee di Angelo-Solace. Lee had obviously gotten those dark curls and eyes from the one in the suit. Both men shook her hand and everyone listened as she explained.

As she finished there was silence for a moment and Will and Nico shared a look over Lee’s head she couldn’t decipher. In the silence, she noted Lee had become completely calm with the blond one’s hand still resting on him gently. 

It was the suit who spoke first. “Why would he lie?”

The blonde said, like a warning, “Nico….”

The principal glanced sharply at both of them. “I don’t know what you mean. He has the entire first grade terrified to go down to the library. They’re telling their parents the school is haunted and I’ve had six phone calls today. I have a classroom of crying 6 year olds. Mr. Marks is beside himself. I don’t really care, to be honest, why Lee would lie about seeing ghosts. For attention, I suppose…. The thing is, he won’t admit he made it up.”

Here Lee interrupted, voice brave, “I told everyone they’re not scary, they just are here where they died. But everyone got too afraid anyway. It’s not a lie.” His eyes flashed, startlingly powerful in their anger despite the calm voice. 

She pursed her lips. This one was old for a 6 year old, clever. “Lee, you may step outside and colour at the bench there. I want to talk to your dads for a minute.”

She waited until the door closed and then sighed. “Lee’s smart, and sensitive.”

Both men nodded and waited.

“Well, with parents who deal with life and death all the time, maybe he’s picking up on things at home that he can’t process…”

This time the doctor’s eyes flashed and she got a different but equal sense of power from his direction. She swallowed hard. 

“We don’t talk about our work in front of the kids, ever,” Will said. They’d vowed to give their little ones as normal an upbringing as possible, considering.

Nico put his hand against Will’s, a gesture of solidarity and reassurance.

The detective’s voice was measured, “I’ve never known Lee to lie.”

The principal threw her hands in the air.  
“Ghosts, Mr. di Angelo? Really?”

She hadn’t expected the conversation would be going this way. “Do I have to get psych involved?”

Will huffed, “That’s ridiculous!” Nico glared. Again, powerful eyes! She felt goosebumps rise on her cardigan-covered arms.

Dr. Solace turned to his husband. Detective di Angelo nodded and then sighed. “I’ll talk to Lee and sort this out.”

The principal considered him shrewdly. “I need the grade ones to be able to go to the library. And I need their parents off my back,” she admitted. “Do that, and I will never bring this up again.” 

They all looked at each other. 

“I have to get back to the hospital,” Will said finally. Nico nodded and stood. He wasn’t shy about kissing him quickly before saying, “I’ll talk to Lee.” Will nodded, shook the principal’s hand and left quickly. He touched Lee’s head again as he went by. 

“I can have him show me the library?” Nico inquired. The principal just nodded and motioned him away. As he closed the door behind him, she let herself give in to a bit of a tremble. These men, all three, were something! She was thinking O’Malley’s with half a pint might be in order for lunch today. 

In the library, Nico could immediately see what Lee was talking about. Two spirits, harmless, but definitely present, seemed to find their underworld qualities irresistible. They hovered near as soon as they entered, silent and wispy. 

“You can command them,” Nico said finally, standing there holding his son’s hand. “It’s your birthright. Tell them to go.”

Lee’s tremulous voice gave away the fear he’d been hiding. “Can’t you do it, Papa?”

“I can,” Nico agreed. “But, you must learn to do this. You can do this.”

Lee took a breath, “Go!” he whispered, and the spirits jolted away from them as if pushed. 

“Look at them and say it louder, Lee.”

“Go away!” The voice was a small boy’s voice, but it was strong. The spirits were gone.

“They’re gone,” Lee whispered reverently, proudly.

“They will stay gone, unless you call them back. And we can tell your teacher and friends that there are no ghosts in the library.”

Lee stiffened, “I won’t say I made it up!”

“No, piccolo. I will come with you and say that we did an official inspection and the library is safe and ghost-free. And, I'll show them my badge.”

Lee liked that plan. “I’m sleepy,” he said, leaning into his Papa.

“Yes, that happens. It will pass, piccolo.”


End file.
